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I am Indian national residing in UK and have been issued Schengen visa by Norway Embassy which is Type 'C', multiple entry and expires on 21st oct 2014.

Unfortunately I have never used this visa to travel to any country in Europe.

My question is whether I use this Schengen visa issued by Norwegian Embassy to travel to Switzerland for a 10 day holiday?

My first port of entry will be Geneva airport.

Please let me know if I can use this visa and if I need to carry some additional documents to clear immigration control when I land in Switzerland.

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    Have you been in Norway by this visa?
    – MikkaRin
    Jun 19, 2014 at 13:03
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    See travel.stackexchange.com/questions/26939/… (nearly identical situation?)
    – Relaxed
    Jun 19, 2014 at 13:10
  • FYI This question appears to have been asked identically in a bunch of different forums, such as here on flyertalk
    – Gagravarr
    Jun 19, 2014 at 14:19
  • Never been to Norway. I tried applying to Swiss embassy for tourist visa - but they didnt accept my application saying that i already have a valid Schengen visa. I have cancelled flight and hotel tickets which were booked for Norway but the trip never happened - will it help to carry those and travel?
    – vicks1
    Jun 19, 2014 at 16:07
  • @vicks1 You can ask the Norwegian consulate to revoke their own visa (but you still need to obtain a new visa with all the delay and difficulties involved). I don't think that merely having some cancelled hotel booking with you will help.
    – Relaxed
    Jun 19, 2014 at 19:18

2 Answers 2

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New response from FOM, switzerland when i asked them what should i do next as i tried applying to swiss embassy but they didn't accept my application

Dear Inquirer

Schengen visas are accepted in conjunction with a valid travel document for entry into Switzerland. If not otherwise noted, the Schengen visa is valid for all Schengen member states.

While your Norwegian schengen visa is thus acceptable for entry into Switzerland you may be questioned at the border because you have not used it before and have no intention of visiting Norway.

We therefore suggest to you to take with you any documentation to prove that you have tried to apply for a new Swiss schengen visa but were not able to get one because it is not possible to hold more than one valid schengen visa at a time ( e.g. a printout of this email conversation and your application to the Swiss embassy). Further it might be helpful to take your UK residency permit with you, for further proof that you are a legal resident of the European Union and to dispel any doubts at the border about possible visa fraud.

We hope that this information is helpful to you. Please do not hesitate to contact us again, should you require further information.

Kind regards, Federal Office for Migration (FOM) Visa Team

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    +1 Thanks for coming back and sharing the answers you got with us!
    – Relaxed
    Jun 20, 2014 at 8:14
  • Also got this response from consulate -> "I can confirm that if you hold a valid Schengen visa you can travel to Switzerland for tourist and visit purposes. Kind regards Visa Officer Regional Consular Centre London c/o Embassy of Switzerland in the United Kingdom 16-18 Montagu Place, London W1H 2BQ, UK" - seems like i can use my visa for travel. Thanks to all who replied to this question!!
    – vicks1
    Jun 20, 2014 at 10:51
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It's not a good idea.

You issued visa in Norway embassy, but traveled to Swetzerland - Immigration officers may think that you try to fraud them.

Probably they will allow you to pass Switzerland border, but you will never get a Schengen visa again. Do you really need this situation?

The best way is go to Norway on your holidays to use the visa as intended.

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    This sounds broadly correct but I am not sure about the third paragraph. It seems border guards have three options: simply deny entry, annul or revoke the visa (which will leave a trace and can lead to further difficulties in the future and obviously also means denying entry) or do nothing. I don't see how you could enter and yet have problems getting a Schengen visa in the future.
    – Relaxed
    Jun 19, 2014 at 13:11
  • Well, border guards cannot deny you to entry country, if all your documents is ok. As example, you may spend one day in Switzerland and than move to Norway - and this situation will be ok, because you will spend most of the time in Norway - that's why guards cannot deny pass through boarder. About new schengen visa - there must be stamps in your passport that you visited Norway - if there is no, embassy will have questions and if you have no evidence that you was in Norway( book from hotel, air flights and so on) you will never get visa.
    – MikkaRin
    Jun 19, 2014 at 13:23
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    @MikkaRin it is not common to deny a passenger with valid visa, but it is part of the visa terms: the final decision is left for boarder control. No visa guarantees entrance to the corresponding country.
    – Googlebot
    Jun 19, 2014 at 13:30
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    @MikkaRin: Of course border guards can deny you entry to a country, even if you have all the necessary paperwork and it does not have to be an extreme case. The suspicion that you are planning to use your stay for other purposes than specified when applying for the visa is a good enough reason for many countries to reject immgrants at the border.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Jun 19, 2014 at 13:49
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    @MikkaRin They definitely can deny entry especially if they think the visa has been fraudulently obtained. If they don't think that, then the point is moot.
    – Relaxed
    Jun 19, 2014 at 14:26

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